Tira más madera para hacer la hoguera

Wednesday was class per usual. Started watching Los girasoles ciegos in Cinema class, which is another depressing movie about a Republican family living in post-civil war Spain. After the movie me and Samantha went shopping for some souvenirs for a bit. I headed home, did some homework, and then Mery and I had an early supper. Wednesday was the beginning of the Festival of San Juan (technically the festival started at midnight so it was really June 24th) to honor St. John the Baptist. Since the saint in question was indeed a baptist, the festival is celebrated on the beach near the water. Everyone gets together on the beach (and I mean EVERYONE), builds little bonfires, and sits around them drinking, talking, dancing, and waiting for midnight. When I got there, our friends had surprisingly already had a fire going. Turns out they met these guys from Madrid who were in town, befriended them, and got them to build a fire for us. They were cool guys, friends from college, and we sat around and joked with them for a while. They got up to go watch the concert at the big stage down by the beach after a while though, leaving us with a nice little fire. Still, we were running out of wood fast and midnight was a while off so me and Lauren got up to try and find some wood for sale. Walking down the boardwalk we found absolutely no wood, but plenty of vendors selling char-grilled ears of corn covered in butter and salt for 2euro. We bought 2 obviously. On our way back, we snagged a big cardboard box from the trash along with some old book and some loose bark from the palm trees. This sustained the fire for a little while until we sent some other people out to go beg other people for wood.

At midnight, the tradition is that everyone rushes into the water and jumps over 7 waves. Literally everyone does this, and it is really something to see. I didn't go too far in since I wasn't wearing a bathing suit, but some people went all out. I did my seven little waves, made my wish (should be obvious what I wished for), and then walked around the shoreline for a bit... the moon was almost full so the water and beach looked incredible. We headed back to our fire, which soon turned into a giant pit of billowing smoke and embers. Me, Chris, Josh, and Samantha went to walk around the beach to find some people to chat with. We ended up talking with this group of guys from Spain for a while. The one guy's name was Bambino (a nickname from the time he had studied in Italy), and they were talking to us for a while about random stuff. I got the name of Bambino's favorite Spanish musician: El Barrio, a flamenco singer. I've checked out some of his music and it is actually pretty legit. We hung out with them for a while, and then headed back to our people. We left around 2 in a cab. Honestly, this was one of the coolest experiences of the entire trip... it's a shame American Festivals are nothing like this one.

Thursday: everyone was super tired from the night before and still smelled like bonfire smoke, despite showering in the morning. Watching a movie in art class (about prostitutes and a nun, of course), and finished watching Los girasoles ciegos in Cinema... very good movie, ultra sad, and unfortunately accurately depicted the post-war reality. After the movie, my group gave our final presentation about the Republican Party during the Spanish Civil War. This is not Republican in the American sense: during this time, the Republic in Spain were the leftests: intellectuals who wanted freedom, equality of women, and progressive thinking in the government. Unfortunately, they lost the war due to the aid Franco and the nacionalistas received from Hitler and Mussolini, and were forced to leave Spain or were hunted down and murdered if they chose to stay. Absolutely horrific. My part of the presentation talked about some famous intellectuals from the time period like Luis Bunuel, Antionio Machado, and Pablo Picasso. Nailed the presentation, too. After class we all pretty much went home to study for exams. I honestly didn't feel like I had a lot of studying to do, so I packed my suitcase and whatnot. I forgot to mention that Mery made me a bocadillo Thursday: my favorite with the tuna salad. And because she is the most amazing person ever, she also made my favorite dish (the chicken with celery cream sauce) for dinner that night. I asked her for the recipe and she wrote it down, explaining every detail. I miss that lady so much.

Thursday night= finish packing, look over notes, sleep. Pictures are from San Juan, although they don't do justice to how many people were there and how much fun everyone was having.

Hasta.

Tae Kwon Do on the Beach

Well since I have a 6 hour layover in the Dulles airport this afternoon, I figured I’d at least write another blog entry. Of course, I actually am writing it in a Word Document and copying it and pasting it later since the Dulles airport doesn’t have free WiFi… yeah, stay tuned for the final blog entry about leaving Spain and how much Dulles airport sucks.

Anyway, Monday was a weird day because we were all coming off the super-busy Barcelona weekend and the realization that we had finally reached our last week in Spain was setting in. Classes were pretty simple. Talked about Dali and Surrealism in art class, and then my group had to give an oral presentation over Camino, which we nailed. After the presentation, we started watching La Lengua de las Mariposas, a film about the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. After class I met with my group for Cinema to write an essay, and then headed over with a group of people from the program around 5:30PM to go to our Spanish cooking class. This was literally one of the coolest things I did the entire time in Spain. The 18 person class split up into groups and each group made one of four dishes: Paella Valenciana, Arroz Negro, Paella de Calabaza y Chorizo, and Flan. My group made a huge dish of Arroz Negro, which is a rice dish with chiporrones (little squids) and a squid-ink sauce (hence the Negro part). It was pretty tedious at first because you had to remove the fins and mouths from the little squid by hand. The chef that helped us out was really nice, and the whole room smelled amazing. When it was all done, we all grabbed plates and were served huge portions of all the dishes. Oh and I forgot to mention the gigantic vat of Sangria we all made as well. So we proceeded to dine; the food was all really good, and I definitely plan on trying to recreate some of the dishes.
After the class, me and a couple friends stopped in a bar on our way home to watch the rest of the Spain world cup game. Afterwards we made our way home, I finished up the essay, and headed to bed.

Tuesday’s classes were ordinary. We finished La Lengua de las Mariposas in Cinema class… I really like this class a lot, not only because the professora is amazing, but also because by watching the movies I actually remember the history and events; all the movies we watch really help to visualize the political or social situation in Spain at various times in its history. Unfortunately, I never realized how brutally awful the Spanish Civil War was, and how much Franco’s dictatorship set Spain back as a country on the whole. The movie was really good, and I would recommend it. It’s another downer kind of movie, but then again Spain doesn’t have the most happy-go-lucky history either. I went home after class and ate with Mery. I wish I got to eat lunch at home more often because it is always so good. Because it was a really nice day, I rallied and went to meet some people at the beach. After all, this would be the last time I could sit under the Valenican sun. No Don Simon at the beach this time; actually, me and Samantha went over flash cards for our Cinema final haha. And on top of it all, there was a crazy Spanish man practicing some kind of karate on the beach. He kept shouting at people and just being a mangui in general. Oh Valencia. I’m not too sure what I did after dinner on Tuesday, if I did anything at all. I want to say I just stayed in and studied and chilled. It’s kind of hard to remember since this whole last week was a blur.

Pictures are from the cooking class, as I’m sure you can tell. I’m really gonna miss eating food like that!

Hasta.

The Good Morning Collective Moan

Sunday morning: the breakfast room was literally one giant hangover. I managed to get down in good time, and ate some fruit with some of my friends... some of whom were much worse off than I. I got to hear all the stories from the people that we got separated from the previous night... definitely made a good decision staying with the group. Anyway, I had packed my bag before coming to breakfast, and afterward we had to checkout and store our luggage in a locked room to pick up later in the afternoon. We all sat around for about an hour, slowly and painfully recovering until the bus came to pick us up and take us to the Barrio Gotico of Barcelona: the old city. We were all on the bus, everyone was ready to doze off for the 10 minute ride there, and then our tour guide started talking: "Hola, chicos. ¿Teneís energía para caminar en el barrio gótico esta mañana?" After she said this, the entire bus literally gave a collective moan, and off we went.

We got dropped off and then had to exit the bus. The tour was grueling, not only because everyone was absolutely exhausted, but because it was more or less pointless. We literally would walk around different streets in the old city, and then we would stop in front of a church or a museum. She would explain (her accent was MUCH worse that day) what was inside and talk about a bunch of random tangents, and then we would move on. So thus, theme of Sunday was: Drag our feet around the old city of Barcelona listening to our tour guide talk about all the cool things inside of the buildings that we weren't going to enter. Still, we went in a couple cathedrals, all of which were stunning. After at least 4 hours of the tour, we were finally done, and allowed to go explore the old city by ourselves. It was only around 2, but everyone was starving because breakfast had been... a struggle. Luckily, Lauren, who had been to the city once before, remembered a pizza place that was close by, and a group of us went there for lunch. The pizza was phenominal: 2 slices and a drink for 4 euro. I got 4 slices: goat cheese and tomatoes, mexican style, mozzarella and veggie, and spinach and cheese.

After lunch we got some gelato and then opted for touring the Picasso Museum. Although it was crowded and we were a little rushed, the museum was very interesting. Picasso was literally painting neoclassical masterpieces by the age of 14. The museum was organized chronologically, so it was fascinating to see the progression of his art and the changing style throughout the years. Very cultural, no doubt. We took the metro back to the hotel afterwards, gathered our stuff, and boarded the bus to head for home. Sleep ensued quickly, and we finished watching Avatar once we exited Cataluña. Arriving in Valencia literally felt like coming home: Barcelona was great, but Valencia is such a comfortable, friendly city. A group of us went to McDonald's after to grab a quick bit before heading back to our houses. I got a Cuarto de libra con queso and patatas fritas. Now, I don't know if I was famished or if I actually did eat the best McDonald's burger of my life that night, but either way it was just what I needed. Went back to casa, snuck in so as not to wake Mery, finished up my presentation for my Cinema class, and went to bed. So that was Barcelona in a nutshell. Way too big of a city to do in a weekend, but I got a good feel for everything. Still have to say I prefer Valencia by far. This city is special. I don't know what it is exactly, but it's undeniable.

Pictures are odds and ends in Barcelona.

Hasta

Day Two: Including Barcelona Underground

Breakfast at the hotel on Saturday was a little rough for everyone. They had delicious fresh fruit and juices and eggs, which made everything better. Best of all, we had a five hour bus tour planned for the afternoon. We got on the bus around 10:30, and we had a tour guide who was going to be spending the next two days with us. She was a really sweet woman from Barcelona. The only problem was that she decided to give all the tour to us in English. She had a really good vocabulary, it's just her accent was very thick (it was grueling to here all about the "Seeee-ty of Barce-LOH-na" all the time). Since we were indeed on a Spanish study abroad trip, I don't see why she couldn't have just given the tour in Spanish. It would have been honestly easier to listen to. Anyway, the bus tour was perfect because we got to see a lot of Barcelona (it's a huge city) as well as some of the areas on the outskirts of the city. Our first stop was a place called Mont Juic, which is a large hill near the coast. There was a nice park we stopped in to sight see for a little bit. It was funny to see how much La Sagrada Familia stood out in the skyline. We got back on the bus, and our next stop was the Olympic Stadium. This was really neat to see; Barcelona was surely an amazing host city, and the city benefited greatly in terms of the economy, so they were able to make tons of improvements with all the revenue. We drove down by the coast afterwards and saw the beaches and the famous "W" hotel.

Our last stop was in Gaudi's Park. As you may have guessed, Gaudi is Barcelona's favorite architect, and this park leaves no doubt as to why. All the walk ways and plazas are build right into the surrounding nature, and everything is super-modern. Most of the mosaics, which are absolutely stunning, are actually made from old tea cups and ceramic dishes. It was a beautiful day for the park, and I wish I would have had the opportunity to go back there and just relax. After the park, we were dropped off in La Plaza de Cataluña, which is the center of Barcelona... this was slowly becoming a common theme of the trip: Let's drop off all these students in a random square in Barcelona and have them find their way back to the hotel. Either way, we roamed around and found a nice restaurant to eat at: we were all starving (and exhausted). The food was really good, and the waiter was actually very friendly at this place. Afterwards we tried to make our way home by walking since we didn't want to pay for a taxi. Then, however, it started raining, so we hailed a taxi and headed for the hotel. Good thing too, because we were no where close. Once back in the hotel we literally slept... not napped, but slept. Until around 8.

Afterwards we pregamed up in Lauren and Sam's room (Vodka azul = Crunch berries in alcoholic liquid form), and then took our bus to Las Ramblas again. We found a great little restaurant, and a big group of us of 20 or so sat and a big long table upstairs. It was tons of fun, and the food was delicious. I got pork sausages and white beans... and a beer of course. After dinner, we blindly navigated the streets looking for a certain bar. Thanks to an iPhone, we found it. The bar was called "Dow Jones" and the gimmick went like this: they had a TV monitor that displayed all the prices of the drinks. However, according to supply and demand, the prices or "stocks" of each drink fluctuated. Turns out it was actually just really annoying to pay attention to the prices and you really only saved money if you drank stuff that no one else wanted... which surprisingly... no one wanted to drink. But the market "crashed" every hour or so. We pretty much stayed there all night since we didn't want to go all the way back to the port to a discoteca.

Me, Chris, Kara, and Andrea opted to take the metro home instead of paying for a taxi. Turns out the Barcelona metro at 4AM is only slightly sketchy. We made it home with only one minor delay involving some stairs (no one fell this time, quite different, actually) and since I had the key card that night, I went to my room and passed out.

Pictures of Day 2 are from the places mentioned above.

Hasta.

Barcelona: ¿Adónde empezar?

Apologies first of all on my part: turns out you need free time to write a blog, and I've been at a lack of that this past week trying to study/cram everything I hadn't done in Valencia in one week. So here I am sitting in my room with my suitcase packed about to tell you about LAST weekend, which was the Barcelona trip.

After class we got on our tour bus at one and headed for Cataluña. Slept most of the way there because we were all exhausted from whatever we did the night before... don't remember, maybe we went back to L'umbracle. Actually, that is what we did last Thursday night. We had befriended the public relations guy named Ahmad at this one bar, and he is a big shot at the discoteca, so he gave us all free entry passes and bought us a bunch of drinks when we got there. Crazy night; someone fell down some stairs (not hurt, but it was funny since it was this person's third time falling on stairs in Spain). Anyway, back to the bus trip. Everyone was exhausted from the night before. To pass the time, they put in Avatar with Spanish subtitles... gotta love it. Funny thing is that even on a 4 hour bus trip we weren't able to finish the movie because the region of Cataluña has a law that makes it illegal for buses to show movies while driving within the borders of the region. Yeah...

When we got to Barcelona, we went immediate to La Sagrada Familia, which is the GIANT church designed by Antoni Gaudi. The corner stone was laid in 1882 and the church will not be finished until 2030. As you can surmise, it is absolutely incredible. The entire exterior is full of sculpture of everything imaginable, but it all forms a unified theme. Interesting fact: the two main columns on the facade of the church are supported by two turtles: one a land tortoise and one a sea turtle. La Sagrada Familia is located equidistant from the coast and the mountains, thus each turtle represents the two natural land forms that the church is centered between. It really is remarkable: personally I have been waiting to see this church for years, so you can imagine how pumped I was. We took a lift up to the top of one of the central towers: it is the highest point in the Barcelona skyline and it isn't even finished yet. Some of the spiral staircases were a little terrifying on the way down though. I definitely made a new life goal to return to see it when it is completed.

After the temple, we took the bus to the hotel to unload our stuff. The hotel was really nice: black marble bathrooms, big beds (two people to a room and the beds were pushed together... Europe for ya), and modern decor. Clearly the reason why the trip was so expensive. We had to shower and get ready pretty much immediately because we needed to grab some dinner. The concierge recommended a place to us, so we all went there since it was just around the corner. We sat outside, and were soon waited on by a... how shall I put this: flamboyant, bitter, impatient Indian guy. We tried ordering our drinks in Spanish, but he refused to respond to us (since they use the vernacular Catalan language in Barcelona), so instead of communicating with our decent Spanish, he insisted on talking to us in some of the worst broken English I've ever heard. He was really arrogant about it too. I was getting a really bad vibe from Barcelona at this point. We were super American and decided to get hamburguesas. However, the ones in Spain are SO much better. They make them with lamb and herbs, and top them with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a fried egg. That put me in a little better mood, but then we had to fight the guy to get our check.

We finally made our way back to the hotel to catch the tour bus that was dropping us all of on Las Ramblas for the night. Las Ramblas is the main road of Barcelona; it's kind of equivalent to New Orleans' Bourbon Street: drinking, prostitutes, fireworks, street vendors, and pick-pockets. Barcelona has expert pick-pockets, so we all guarded our belongings like crazy. We pretty much went bar hopping from there: drank goblets (yes, goblets) of beer at one place, went to the basement of another club for free shots, and then made our way to the port in a taxi to go to a discoteca that we had gotten free passes to. There was a much larger young-person population at the place we went to, but other than that everything was pretty much the same, just more expensive. We hung out there for a while, and then grabbed some cabs home around... 5? haha

Now here is where things got interesting. Tid-bit of information: we all had roommates (I was rooming with this guy Albert from our program), but the hotel only gave us one room key, which of course, my roommate had. We had been in the same group the whole night, but got separated at the discoteca. No big deal... he could just call me when he got in to let me in the room. Wrong: his phone ran out of money so he couldn't make calls. Anyway, I ended up staying in Sam and Lauren's room. Basically I slept in the crack of the two beds in jeans and a button down. Classy I know. I was freezing though, so around 7AM I got up and found this HUGE wool blanket in the closet. Best find of the day. I didn't mind not sleeping in my own bed since we all had to be up and moving by around 8AM so... more of a nap. Funny story though.

Since this is already a long entry, and I have a lot of pictures from the trip, I'll stop this one here. Pictures are from La Sagrada Familia mostly.

Destination: Barcelona

Hey everyone, I am heading to Barcelona this weekend with the UVa program, and thus will not have internet aside from my Blackberry. I'm running off a solid 2.5 hours of sleep right now... can you say: "sleep on the bus."

Big update when I get back.

Hasta.

Baby Beluga

Got my art exam back Tuesday in class. Solid A, so now I'm just riding that class out until the end. Cinema we started watching my groups movie in class... kind of boring since I had just watched it the day before, but I still enjoyed it enough to watch it again. Kara and I went shopping in some of the plazas to buy stuff for our families back home. So I got some of the soveneir shopping over with. I also bought myself a cheap button down to wear in Barcelona, since I didn't bring quite enough going out clothes, and the bars and clubs are strict on what you wear there. Came home, ate dinner (Mery made Paella... couldn't have been better), did some homework, and then went to meet some people at Casablanca for some drinks. Fun night.

Wednesday's classes were ordinary, nothing new and exciting. However, after class I went with Sam and Lauren to eat at this bar called Portland (it's a very American bar, clearly). Got the Stormin' Norman sandwich, which was really good, and a ton of food for 5 euro. We watched the kick off to the World Cup match between Spain and Switzerland. We had to leave soon after though to walk to the oceaografico to pick up our tickets. Once we got the tickets, we went to a nearby bar and finished watching the game. It was a let down to say the least. However, afterwards we walked to the oceanografico (Valencia's aquarium in the City of Arts and Sciences). The place was amazing. First of all, the architecture is unbelievable all throughout that area. Secondly, they have some really cool animals, and we got to watch a dolphin show, which is bound to put anyone in a good mood.

Came home afterwards, had dinner, and then did homework the rest of the night. Basically we are all realizing how much we have left to do for our Cinema class, and how there is no way we can possibly get it all done AND study for our final... especially because we are all going to Barcelona this weekend. Oh well. Poor entry cuz I'm writing in a hurry.

Pictures are of the aquarium.

Hasta.